As was expected, the Easter long weekend was the worst stretch for COVID-19 cases in B.C. for some time.

Adding to Saturday’s update of 2,151 on Friday and Saturday, there were 1,889 between Sunday and today. That brings the four-day weekend case count to 4,040, and there were also 23 deaths from the virus in that time.

Over the weekend there were also 916 new variant of concern cases reported in B.C., including 557 of the U.K. variant, 358 of the Brazil variant and one of the South African variant.

There have now been 3,559 total cases in B.C. with more-contagious variants of concern, and 588 are active.

Province-wide, there are now just under 8,500 active cases of the virus and almost 12,000 people in self-isolation who have been exposed. There are 318 people in hospital and 96 people in critical care.

Meanwhile, 893,390 COVID-19 vaccine doses have now been administered in B.C., which means about 106,000 doses were administered in the past four days.

Starting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, B.C. residents eligible to book a vaccine appointment will be able to do so online.

COVID Exposures in Two More Kamloops and Area Schools

For the first time during the pandemic, a COVID-19 exposure has been reported at Logan Lake Elementary School.

The risk of exposure there was on March 29 and 30

An exposure has also been reported today at Brock Middle School, with the risk being on March 31.

There are also active exposures at Westmount Elementary and NorKam Secondary. The exposure risk at NorKam was on March 22 and 23, and the risk at Westmount was for March 23, 24 and 25.

Anyone at risk of being exposed will have already been called by Interior Health contact tracers and told to self-isolate.